Fr Brambillasca: Mother Teresa taught PIME to live the mission "joy and serenity"
The relationship between the saint of Calcutta and the missionary institute dates back to 1973. Mother Teresa had a "deep interest" in "others, her fellow human beings." From Cambodia to Brazil, missions began or grew thanks to collaboration between the Missionaries of Charity and PIME priests. Here is the complete intervention of the Superior General of PIME at the AsiaNews Symposium.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The mission "is born and lives" through a true "experience of God in faith and prayer." The priority is to "love the poor, the marginalised and the last". The missionary vocation must be lived with "joy and serenity,” said Fr Ferruccio Brambillasca, Superior General of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). He spoke about the teachings Mother Teresa left those involved in the mission. What follows is Fr Brambillasca’s address at the AsiaNews Symposium dedicated to Mother Teresa. Translation by AsiaNews.
My dear friends,
in greeting all of you who are taking part in this Symposium, I would like to recall briefly the figure of Mother Teresa in relation to my Institute, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, PIME.
First, let me share with you the great gift I received during my personal experience working in India as a teacher in the PIME seminary in Pune, having met the Sisters of Mother Teresa (our seminarians were taking part in an experience of charity with them) and Mother Teresa herself several times.
I still remember the meeting with Mother Teresa as if it were yesterday. Along with another confrère, I was in Calcutta, and we decided to visit unannounced the house and the works of the Sisters of Mother Teresa. Among other things, it was a very difficult time for me because the Indian government had asked me to leave the country right away since my visa had not be renewed. I also longed to meet Mother Teresa before leaving India, and so I did!
At the time, Mother Teresa was involved in a retreat with her sisters but as soon as she heard that two missionaries wanted to meet her, even briefly, she left the place of the Spiritual Exercises and came to greet us. Immediately she asked us who we were, why we were in India, if we had problems with the visa. I told her immediately that in fact our visas to stay in India had not been renewed as well as about problems with food and the Indian climate. In the end, we who wanted to know something about her and her life, realised that things had gone the other way around. It was Mother Teresa who asked about us, our life and vocation, showing her deep and heartfelt interest in others, in her fellow human beings!
During my visits to the PIME missions, I met several times the Sisters of Mother Teresa. I remember in a special way the sisters who live close to our parish in Port Moresby, and those who live in the Diocese of Vanimo (both in Papua New Guinea), the nuns who work in the Diocese of Parintins (Brazil) on the Amazon River, and, finally, the sisters who, together with PIME, opened a new mission in Cambodia 25 years ago.
In all these communities – and in others that I have not mentioned – I always met with a lot of hospitality, willingness to work for and with the poor, praying, poverty and simplicity of life. I have always admired a special aspect present in the nuns: their true and profound joy in living the mission.
Even in my missionary experience in Japan, in addition to meeting and appreciating the activities of the Sisters of Mother Teresa who work in Tokyo, I must express my gratitude to the Lord because, in the parish where I lived and worked (always in the Tokyo diocese), the religious vocation of a young Japanese woman blossomed so that she eventually decided to join the community of the Sisters of Mother Teresa. I think it is important to say this because the vocation of that young woman is a concrete sign that the charm and charisma of Mother Teresa had no boundaries, even in a country like Japan, where Christians are a small minority and vocations to religious life are very few.
Of course, the relationship between PIME and Mother Teresa, especially in Italy, has a long history that goes back to 1973, when, for the first time, Mother Teresa came to Italy, at the invitation of PIME missionaries, to participate in a march through the streets Milan, in what would become the first missionary vigil! Since then, PIME missionaries met with Mother Teresa and "her" sisters countless times, and still do.
What does Mother Teresa teach us PIME missionaries, scattered in various parts of the world and committed to proclaiming the Gospel in different cultures?
I think Mother Teresa teaches us many different things. Here are a few:
- The mission is born and lives through a real experience of God in faith and prayer. Life, the witness of Mother Teresa for us missionaries above all this, without any doubt! The mission, Mother Teresa still seems to tell us, cannot have other beginnings or sources if not in the fact that one has experienced the living God and that living God calls each one to be a missionary and His witness.
- The priority of loving the poor, the marginalised, the last, first and above all, in our missions, in any place we might be, from the small village in Guinea Bissau to the great metropolis of Hong Kong. I am convinced that Mother Teresa's calling is essential for us missionaries, even and especially in some missions where we work, where it might seem that the so-called "last" do not exist or that not much can be done for them. This loving concern for the poor, so strong and essential in the life of Mother Teresa, challenges us to review our mission and presence.
- Finally, the joy and serenity in living our missionary vocation, even if, sometimes, the mission looks tiring and difficult. When I met with Mother Teresa and visited many communities the Missionaries of Charity, I always noticed, with great admiration, the joy and serenity present in them, a sign that the protagonist of their and our work and mission is and remains God. I think that we missionaries should also keep in mind these two realities – joy and serenity – as we face a mission that will change and seems to become increasingly difficult and uncertain. May the Mother accompany us so that we can realise our desire.
Let me end by thanking Father Bernardo Cervellera, a PIME missionary and editor of Asia News, along with his staff, for organising this Symposium on the eve of the canonisation of Mother Teresa. I take this opportunity to thank those who have spoken and will speak during this Symposium, and I thank all of you here for your participation and your attention.
Thank you.
(* PIME Superior General)
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